Gears of War 4 – What are you!?

It seems an easy question a first. Gears of War 4 is at its core a cover-based shooter. Well yes, but then it also has a substantial bit of fortress defense thrown in and some pseudo-platforming dodge bits too.

It’s also couch co-op… unless you have more than two people, but then there is online co-op for that… unless you want to split screen and play online. That’s a no can do, buddy.

It’s a sins-of-the-father tale with a new evil borne from the first, but then it’s also a slapstick comedy and a weakly hinted romance drizzled on top with a side of ‘stick it to the man’.

It’s a chainsaw massacre that only mostly ends up resetting you to the last checkpoint when you notice a little too late that you’re in a button mash QTE. And it’s full of new weapons to try and discard when you realize they are useless on the majority of enemies – who have annoyingly strafey movements.

All that being said. All told, it’s still really fun. It’s an hour of the familiar juxtaposed against 10 minutes of the foreign. Crouch-shooting followed by midair acrobatics. Chainsaw mayhem then an angry tirade at whomever just bought that decoy- TURRETS AND BARRIERS ONLY OMG! Regardless of its many peculiarities, it’s still a good time.

And isn’t that why we play games anyway? Listen to me talk more about this and much more on Episode 11 of the Retro Rebel Podcast!

Amanda cut her teeth on her dads old Tandy before graduating to SNES and beyond. An accomplished guild leader in multiple titles and sucker for console RPGs; Amanda spends most of her free time with a bit of tech in her hands. With a life philosophy derived from a Spock quote and more passport stamps then shoes; she is a well-traveled nerd with the urge to pontificate.